NYC, Philly, Louisville get traffic safety grants

By Michael R. Sisak
Associated Press

NEW YORK — New York City, Philadelphia and Louisville, Kentucky, were awarded $1.6 million in federal grants Friday for programs designed to curb pedestrian deaths.

The cities will use the money to educate drivers and pedestrians, go after speeders and create safe walking routes, said David Friedman, the acting administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

He said the selected cities have had high numbers of pedestrian fatalities and could become models for new approaches in traffic safety. In New York, he said, 127 pedestrians were killed in 2012, accounting for nearly half of the city's traffic deaths that year.